"Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." ~*Matthew 6:21 (NLT)*~
What is it that consumes my life? What drives my mind, sustains my soul, motivates my heart, and controls my every belief, though, emotion, and action? What am I living for? What am I working toward? What goal am I running after? What fuels and drives me? What is the purpose of life? What am I doing with my life? What do I want to do with my life? In the eyes of those around me, how am I living my life? How do my motives, words, and actions affect those around me? Am I doing everything in my power to live a biblical, obedient life to God? Do I allow what people say to me affect me? Is it worth getting upset, excited, or down about?
Overwhelmed yet? (or maybe just bored... I don't know)
A word of warning: those of you who know me pretty well will know I enjoy brutal honesty and tough love and I have no problem dishing it out from time to time. Don't worry, I do this to myself before I even BEGIN to type or even think about posting such things. I'm moved to share some of my random, rambling thoughts with you and have debated on whether or not to do it, partly because I don't think people read these things and it's a waste of my time even putting it up here... but also because I don't want to offend anybody. Of course, I'm doing it so we'll see if it was a good idea or not. Please don't let any of what I write offend you. If you have some concern over what I say, let me know. It's pretty much all opinion...... from my heart.
All of this is written from a recent heart-check. I've been convicted and have called myself out on all of it (and am still doing so). It's all from the Holy Spirit convicting me on thoughts, emotions, and actions. We all need a reminder every now and then. We all need a heart-check. I've needed several and recently God has delivered them through some pretty difficult situations as well as some pretty small and unimportant happenings. I think you'll see what I mean and pray you understand my thoughts and convictions. I will admit this whole rambling of my thoughts just happened to occur with KU losing to K-State last night. My heart-check came when I realized how upset I was about something that should not be so significant to me. It came when I realized that I was upset about some form of entertainment not fulfilling my expectations for a day.
So what are some of the answers? The questions above have been racing through my mind all day... so I may have kept a journal throughout my work day today, jotting notes here and there in between approving art files for production. Matthew 6:21 is definitely the verse of the day for me. What is my heart set on? Are you set on Earth or Eternity? Do I have my heart set on higher things, greater and more important things than the things of this earth? I hope that I can say that my heart isn't set on a basketball game or a specific team or my job. I caught myself last night and I don't want my heart set on those things but sometimes we just get caught up in it all and I understand that. I refocused and that was the heart-check: My heart is set on God, his love for me and in me, and how that may affect those around me. This also just HAPPENED to be the devotional for February 15th in"My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. It talked about being my brother's keeper, but more importantly how the way we act and speak to those around us affect them spiritually.
I have all of these thoughts and a few more that have come to the surface. Part of it is courtesy to the class I'm taking "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement." The rest of it is courtesy to Ol' KU and a basketball game gone wrong, believe it or not (It's one of very few that ends wrong in my eyes). I wondered how the result of a game could affect me and realized how consumed we become in such small, irrelevant things in life. What is even more silly to me is how we are consumed by things that we have no real control over at all, such as the outcome of a college basketball game and how players play in that game. I thought about how much people trash talk each other and a team they really have nothing to do with.
I have to bite my tongue and 95% of the time I do a great job. That other 5% came out in a message to a friend pointing out why smack talk irritates me. To me it is a great thought though and may cause you to think a little bit as well. Ponder this: How much of the world would be evangelized if we spent as much energy and air on telling unreached people about Jesus as we do smack talking one another over something insignificant that we play no real part in? I'm calling myself out on this too so, really, please take no offense to it. If we had as much passion and energy spent on missions and evangelism as we do for cheering on "our team" or trash talking, how many unreached people groups would have been reached by now? Think about it. Isn't there some truth to that? It gets on my nerves sometimes how much passion WE (myself included) have towards sports/entertainment in our society. What would happen if we had that much passion for aids awareness in Africa or for putting an end to sex trafficking of young girls and woman in places like Thailand or India? Wouldn't that be awesome? Think about it. I know I have.
Then I also think about how we treat each other and the things we say to each other in regards to such unimportant things. How Biblical is that? We can find out by looking in Hebrews, Ephesians, James, and Proverbs pretty quickly. We don't have to look far intoHebrews to see how words give and take away life and how our tongue is sharp like a double-edged sword (ch 4 verses 12-13). We don't have to look far into Ephesians to see that we are only supposed to speak words that build up, not tear down (ch 4 verse 29). We can find how to tame our tongue in James (ch 3 verses 1-12). Proverbs also refers to words as swords, but also bringing healing (ch 12 verse 18). I'm nowhere near perfect, but honestly it's a great thing to think about.
I want to live my life the way God wants me to live (I hesitate to say the way God EXPECTS me to live). What does that look like? Pretty sure the Bible paints a pretty detailed and vivid picture through us. God send His son as a PAYMENT for the WRONGS that WE have done. How are we supposed to live? We are supposed to live how God wants us to live. We have this tendency, as humans, to try to make God the way we want God to be. A lot of us pray expected granted wishes. God isn't a wish granting genie, but He does answer prayers. They may not be answered the way we want them to be or how we expect them to be but that is the beauty and adventure of God. We wouldn't have to look far for the answers to many of our questions. A friend and I discussed a pretty cool thought: If there is a decision to be made, ask yourself what the Bible says. There is an answer in the Bible. There has always been an answer there, we just haven't always looked for it or we don't like what the Bible says because it doesn't say what we want it to say. It isn't possible for us to live perfectly but it is possible for us to follow Jesus and live with a purpose. It is possible to line our lives and purpose up with that of the Biblical truths that Jesus taught and gave to us. How do we know if something is "right" in God's eyes? Truthfully, we won't know until we meet Him face to face. I can't give you an answer but I can point you to the Word and you can seek it for yourself.
Are we living life with the purpose of following Christ? Will God take care of us? I've been asked lately what I want to do with my life. It didn't necessarily become a reality to me until my mentor mentioned something the last time I met with her. It set off alarms but also made my heart smile because the thought of it...... it is what I want to do with my life. BUT the question is, how do you tell your parents you want to be a missionary when you grow up? Who really does that? How do you expect them to react? I've wondered what I am doing with my life, why am I still in Manhattan, and what does God want me to do. I want to work for God. He is my boss. He is also my provider. What does that look like, to have God be the one in control of your life? I don't know. So far, I've seen Him open doors here in Manhattan. I haven't been able to get a job anywhere else even though I've applied for a ridiculous amount. I'm not even going to give you a number it is so ridiculous. The only opportunities have popped up in good old Manhattan, KS. God has planted roots for me here. I have a spiritual family and church community that I love. He's blown doors open for me to share Him with people at my job. Will life continue to look like this for me? Probably not but only God truly knows the answer to that question. I'm okay with that most days. He will take care of me and that is TRUTH (like the kind you find in the Bible).
Do you have your sights set on eternity or the short amount of time we spend here on earth? A good friend used the comparison of life to that of a vapor: one minute it's here, the next it's not. Life on earth is like a vapor compared to all of eternity. Do we set our sites on the beauty of our Lord and the life He offers or that of materialism here on earth? How are you living your life? What things have a hold on your heart? I pray for a heart check for all of us very often. Is your living lining up with what God defines as obedience in the Bible? I answered "for the most part I guess". If your answer is similar, check your heart to see what is keeping you from following completely. (FYI: just because it is in the Bible doesn't mean it is easy. It will be quite difficult but definitely worth it).
My prayer is that God does a number on each of our hearts, that the Holy Spirit moves in us and convicts us to reprioritize our lives.
Where did you bury your treasure? That's where your heart is going to be. Think about it.
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